Harrisburg -PennDOT announced that efforts to better manage staff vehicle usage has resulted in a 30 percent reduction in staff-assigned vehicles and $4 million in savings on mileage reimbursements.

By focusing its vehicle assignments to those employees who regularly log the highest number of business-related miles each year PennDOT has been able to substantially decrease employee mileage reimbursements. Overall, the department has reduced its number of staff-assigned passenger vehicles (sedans and sport utility vehicles) by nearly 30 percent since 2003.

“Governor Corbett is committed to make government operate as efficiently as possible and to that end we PennDOT is working hard and making smart choices to ensure that we are operating at peak efficiency,” said PennDOT Secretary Barry J. Schoch. “Through diligently monitoring our fleet, we are able to invest about $4 million directly back into our roads and bridges.”

To ensure that state vehicles are assigned only to those employees who log the highest number of miles, PennDOT conducts monthly reviews of assigned-vehicle and pool-vehicle logs.

PennDOT currently maintains a fleet of approximately 1,500 passenger vehicles and employs nearly 12,000 people. In 2003, the number of passenger vehicles was more than 2,100.

Overall, PennDOT has approximately 8,000 pieces of “rolling equipment” in its fleet, including such vehicles as dump trucks, graders, front-end loaders and crew cabs.